Local and regional long‐term diversity changes and biotic homogenization in two temperate grasslands

Puhl, Laura Elena; Perelman, Susana B.; Batista, William B.; Burkart, Silvia E.; León, Rolando J.C.

doi:10.1111/jvs.12179

Cited by 10 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 53 publications

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“…; Puhl et al. ; Uchida & Ushimaru ). However, the pathways and drivers of homogenization have been varied (Appendix S12).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

“…In Switzerland, however, the implementation of recent grassland conservation initiatives has led to homogenization through the spread of widespread native species (Buhler & Roth ), while both widespread native and non‐native species have increased simultaneously in Hungarian and Argentinean grasslands as agricultural land use has intensified (Torok & Szitar ; Puhl et al. ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Grasslands are considered amongst the most threatened of the Earth's terrestrial ecosystems (Hoekstra et al 2005), with a number of studies recently reporting biotic homogenization (Ross et al 2012;Puhl et al 2014;Uchida & Ushimaru 2015). However, the pathways and drivers of homogenization have been varied (Appendix S12).…”

Section: Grassland Homogenization Around the Globementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Similar to our results, in India, the United States and Chile, grassland homogenization has been driven by the spread of widespread non-native species in response to habitat fragmentation and human settlement (MacDougall et al 2014;Dar & Reshi 2015;Martin & Wilsey 2015;Fisher et al 2016). In Switzerland, however, the implementation of recent grassland conservation initiatives has led to homogenization through the spread of widespread native species (Buhler & Roth 2011), while both widespread native and non-native species have increased simultaneously in Hungarian and Argentinean grasslands as agricultural land use has intensified (Torok & Szitar 2010;Puhl et al 2014).…”

Section: Grassland Homogenization Around the Globementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Biotic homogenization is occurring in grasslands across the globe (Buhler & Roth 2011;Ross et al 2012;Puhl et al 2014). In Melbourne, biotic homogenization has occurred following a reduction in fire frequency and an increase in urbanization, leading to environmental change and, most likely, an increase in non-native propagule pressure.…”

Section: Conclusion and Management Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Biotic homogenization in an increasingly urbanized temperate grassland ecosystem

Zeeman

McDonnell

Kendal

et al. 2017

J Vegetation Science

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Question How does urbanization and associated declines in fire frequency alter the floristic composition of native temperate grasslands? Does it lead to: (1) biotic homogenization, i.e. compositional similarity between remnants increases; (2) biotic differentiation, whereby similarity between remnants declines, or; (3) clustered differentiation, where similarity between remnants remains unchanged, but composition shifts from the historical state? Location Victoria, Australia. Methods Using site‐level surveys, we examined changes in the floristic similarity of 29 urban grasslands from 1992 to 2013 and compared these changes to those of 63 rural grasslands from 1989 to 2014. Community‐level changes in the representation of key functional traits were also examined in urban grasslands, with traits advantaged following disturbance regime change and urban fragmentation predicted to increase in frequency. Results Our results supported the biotic homogenization hypothesis in urban grasslands. Compositional similarity between grasslands increased principally because of an increase in commonly shared non‐native species, with change in native composition comparatively minor. However, no evidence of biotic homogenization was found in rural grasslands, with no significant change in overall composition identified. The most urbanized sites had the highest number of non‐native species in both the current and historical data sets, yet non‐native composition over the past two decades changed the most in sites on the urban fringe, becoming more similar to sites closer to the urban core. As expected, following declines in fire frequency and increased urbanization, the overall composition of urban grasslands shifted to taller plant species, while native species capable of vegetative reproduction and exotic species with an annual life span increased in frequency. Conclusion Urbanization was an important driver of biodiversity change in the investigated system, with increasing competition intensity in response to disturbance regime change a likely cause of biotic homogenization. Our results demonstrate that non‐native species are a key driver of biotic homogenization, emphasizing the importance of managing non‐native immigration and maintaining historical disturbance processes once native ecosystems become urbanized.

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“…; Puhl et al. ; Uchida & Ushimaru ). However, the pathways and drivers of homogenization have been varied (Appendix S12).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Grassland Homogenization Around the Globementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Grassland Homogenization Around the Globementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Conclusion and Management Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Biotic homogenization in an increasingly urbanized temperate grassland ecosystem

Zeeman

McDonnell

Kendal

et al. 2017

J Vegetation Science

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Persistence and turnover in desert plant communities during a 37‐yr period of land use and climate change

Abella

Guida

Roberts

et al. 2019

Ecological Monographs

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Understanding long‐term changes in ecological communities during global change is a priority for 21st‐century ecology. Deserts, already at climatic extremes, are of unique interest because they are projected to be ecosystems most responsive to global change. Within a 500‐km2 landscape in the Mojave Desert, USA, we measured perennial plant communities at 100 sites three times (1979, 2008, and 2016) during 37 yr to evaluate six hypotheses of community change. These hypotheses encompassed shifts in community measures (e.g., diversity, cover) and species elevational distributions, biotic homogenization, disproportionately large change at the highest elevations, relationships between turnover and species’ responses to disturbance and drought, and that environmental refugia (e.g., moist topographic positions) would receive species during climatic warming and drying. Most community measures changed temporally, such as species density (species/600 m2) increasing 23% and plant cover doubling between 1979 and 2016. There was no increase in nonnative species and minimal evidence for biotic homogenization. High‐elevation communities did not display greater change than low‐elevation communities. Moreover, environmental refugia factored little in species shifts. While species distributional changes were unrelated to affinity for disturbance, the six most persistent species (persisting on >80% of sites) were long‐lived shrubs not associated with disturbance. Overall, seemingly paradoxically, climatic warming and drying was associated with increasing plant abundance. Comparing the 1970s to 2007–2016, precipitation in the study area declined 16% from 17 to 14 cm/yr and average daily minimum temperature rose 13% (1.2°C). The current climate with fewer freezes, together with reduced grazing, could be among the most optimal for desert perennials in the past century, although potential response lags to continuing warming and drying are uncertain. This study of long‐term elevational shifts in communities during global change is among few in deserts, and the average upward elevational shift of 6 m/decade for species in our study is within the range reported for temperate biomes. However, the 41% of species moving downslope is unusually high. We propose that dynamics within desert perennial communities follow a core‐transient species model where a site's species are either highly persistent or transient in approximately equal proportions.

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Livestock grazing‐induced large‐scale biotic homogenization in arid Mediterranean steppe rangelands

et al. 2021

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Despite many studies that have explored the effect of livestock grazing on plant communities, the response of species composition and diversity to livestock grazing in arid rangelands remains ambiguous. This study examined the effects of livestock grazing on plant communities in arid steppe rangelands of North Africa. Plant diversity of annual species, perennial species, and all species combined were measured and compared between grazed and grazing-excluded areas. We also examined the relative importance of species turnover and community nestedness. Moreover, the effects of livestock grazing on beta diversity at local among transects and landscape among sites scales were examined using the multiplicative diversity partitioning.Results revealed that livestock grazing significantly decreased the alpha diversity of all species combined and the diversity of annual plants. Livestock grazing induced a shift in plant community composition where most species composition variation (74%) was due to infrequent species replacement 'turnover' between the two management types rather than nestedness (26%). Results revealed also that among transects, beta diversity was higher in grazed steppes than in grazing-excluded steppes. Whereas, among sites, beta diversity was lower in grazed steppes compared to grazing-excluded steppes. These findings suggest that livestock grazing in arid steppe rangelands increases the variation in plant species composition at a local spatial scale and engenders vegetation homogeneity at a landscape spatial scale. Therefore, the implementation of appropriate management practices such as short-term grazing exclusion is mandatory to prevent these ecosystems from large-scale biotic homogenization.

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Local and regional long‐term diversity changes and biotic homogenization in two temperate grasslands

Abstract: Abbreviations CA = correspondence analysis; CS = cool season; HS = halophyte steppe; MP = mesophyte prairie; MRPP = multi-response permutation procedure; WS = warm season.

Cited by 10 publications

References 53 publications

Biotic homogenization in an increasingly urbanized temperate grassland ecosystem

Biotic homogenization in an increasingly urbanized temperate grassland ecosystem

Persistence and turnover in desert plant communities during a 37‐yr period of land use and climate change

Livestock grazing‐induced large‐scale biotic homogenization in arid Mediterranean steppe rangelands

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